IBEC - Newsroom

The Irish Software Association (ISA) today honoured six world-class indigenous software firms with prestigious awards at the Software Industry Awards 2009 in the Burlington Hotel. The Awards, sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, William Fry and Software Skillnet, recognised the outstanding contribution of companies and individuals in the software industry to Ireland’s smart economy.

2009 Software Industry Awards Winners:

Company of the Year 2009: Openet
Emerging Software Business Award: Avego
Sales Achievement Award: Percana
The Technical Innovation Award: iTab
Corporate Social Responsibility Award: Norkom Technologies
Collaboration of the Year Award: Local Social
Software Person of the Year: Paul Kerley, CEO of Norkom,
Student Medal: Yuandong Zhu of UCD

Speaking at the awards, guest of honour Minister Conor Lenihan said: “As we can see from the calibre of the award-winners, it is clear that the software industry will play a crucial part in our economic recovery and in the development of Ireland’s smart economy. Government will continue to work with the software sector and ensure that the great potential for growth that exists is realised and supported.”

Chair of the ISA, Sean Baker said: “The Irish software industry is weathering the recession with considerable strength. Many software companies have diversified their markets, especially geographically, and many have increased their revenues in 2009. The industry employs 28,000 in the country and, notwithstanding current pressures, the future of the sector in Ireland remains bright. This year’s award winners testify to the strong range of companies based here, from early start-ups to mature companies.”

ISA Director Paul Sweetman said; “The companies and individuals that we have recognised tonight have generated fantastic value for customers and investors this year. These talented individuals will drive Ireland’s future economic growth.”

With eight categories in total, the overall prize Company of the Year 2009 was awarded to Dublin-based Openet. Openet focuses on network-edge solutions that extract increased business value from network activity. Combining specialised solution delivery engagements with its FusionWorks event-processing and transaction-management software platform, Openet enables telecom and cable service providers (see www.openet.com).

Avego won the Emerging Software Business award for its work in improving efficiency in the transport sector. Percana won the Sales Achievement award for its Eclipse product suite, which manages a wide range of life and pensions products. The Technical Innovation award went to iTab for its range of products and services that allows musicians to take advantage of a new content-delivery channel. Corporate Social Responsibility award went to Norkom Technologies for its work with disadvantaged youth in its community. Collaboration of the Year award went to Local Social, a partnership between Rococo, UCD and the NDRC.

In the individual categories, Paul Kerley, CEO of Norkom, won Software Person of the Year for his 20 year track record of successfully building and leading entrepreneurial teams. Yuandong Zhu of UCD won the Student medal for developing the most commercially viable piece of research this year by a student: an easy-to-use, highly automated software to aid computer forensic investigations.